Magic Door for Sale
by Deleth
Summary: FOR SALE: One magical door. When used correctly this door will transport you to a magical realm suited to your needs. It is made of solid, rich mahogany and includes decorative runes along the middle portion of the frame. Magic only activates if the door is entered from within. Watch that first step. Delivery within 24 hours guaranteed. Call 558-555-3867 for inquiries.
1. Chapter 1

Author's Notes: First fic in a long time. Wow. I've completed a manuscript for a novel since my last fic so YAY! That aside, venturing into a more innocent universe to expand my writing skills. Enjoy.

Cross posted to as well.

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Interesting things don't happen to people that other people would define as normal. You may know of the kind of person that I'm talking about, but in case you don't we will elaborate on this for a moment. These are the kind of people that go about their daily lives on a routine, day in, day out, and only rarely deviate from the path that was chosen for them or that they themselves chose at some point in the past. They never experience things that would be considered taking a risk and they never truly feel the fulfillment that a precious few who live out their lives on the proverbial edge have discovered. They simply exist in the reality they have made for themselves.

Crystal Stone was such person. She rose every day at seven o'clock sharp and slid off the right side of her bed, slipping her feet into a pair of plushy pink slippers. By five after she was in the shower and exactly thirty minutes later had dried, brushed her teeth, sparingly applied some makeup, and exited her bedroom. For breakfast she ate a bowl of cornflakes, a banana, and drank a small glass of orange juice on the side before heading out the door – always being sure to lock it – and walking to the bus station five minutes before the 8:00AM bus would arrive.

On the bus she would sometimes receive compliments on her and though these kinds of compliments were rare, they never went unnoticed by the young woman. Were a witch's mirror to be asked who the fairest in the land was Crystal would appear as one of many blips on a radar, firmly set in the middle of whatever road beauty was measured by. She did, however, take care of herself so as not to appear homely either, keeping her brunette hair in a sassy pixie style of cut to help accentuate her petite features. Her eyes were the same color brown as her hair, and her skin kept a mostly even if somewhat pale tone. She blended right into her society, never deviating, never drawing attention. Absolutely and perfectly normal.

She worked at a Café near the center of downtown Minneapolis that only opened once the lunchtime rush began at 10:00AM. As such it was essential that as part of her shift, Crystal arrived at least an hour before opening to help prep the food that would be served throughout the day and she would arrive ten minutes before nine each day she was scheduled to work, traffic permitting. Just like every other day she ate a salad when her lunch break rolled around, and left work at 4:00PM with enough time to catch the bus home.

Since she had graduated from a local community college with a degree in the Liberal Arts this was what Crystal's life had become. The same routine, day in and day out. Slogging through life just like everyone else around her while doing what little she could to stave of depression and outright boredom. She would buy music to listen to, occasionally have a different meal for lunch, and when she was feeling particularly full of gumption Crystal would log into her favorite online dating site. Though she had yet to go on a date with any of the potential matches. She acted perfectly content in the life she lived.

Than again…

While it was true she lived a perfectly normal routine, in her soul she wished for more. She wished she had the time and money to learn to blow glass or shape vases so she could create something worthwhile to add to this world. She wished she was more brave so she could break from this routine that held her tied to this area. She wised she could even muster the courage to use what savings she had and move somewhere else entirely, maybe even a different state!

But alas, it was not to be. Every time she got the courage to look at jobs in another area she was frightened away by the moving expenses, or when she could move with ease a secure job in the area could not be found. If it was not one thing, than it was another.

And so, Crystal found herself riding the bus home as she usually did, seven days now before she would turn twenty third birthday but feeling none of the joy that would usually be associated with such an occasion. Her father had passed away six months ago now, leaving her an orphan in this big city. Oh sure, she had some cousins in Michigan that she was far removed from but other than her late father there was no one else in the city. Her friends had all married or moved on in life, away from the greater downtown area where she lived and while she served, helped, and talked to hundreds of people a day at work, she was lonely.

Letting out a soft sigh Crystal stared out the window, fighting off the black void depression for the umpteenth time that day. She needed a change, and fortunately for her fate happened to be watching.

Now fate never truly ignores the faithful drones of life who possess the soul of an adventurer, there are simply not enough adventures available for those who would have them. Fate also cannot directly intervene on a persons behalf, all fate does is move the pieces around so that a door that wouldn't normally be available to a person could be presented. It was still up to the person to walk through that door or not. Sometimes it was as simple as causing a flower to grow in an unusual spot, or a letter to be delivered to the wrong address at the right time.

Sometimes it was an old Ford pickup truck T-Boning the bus you were riding.

The sound of squealing tires and breaking glass filled the air, Crystal's aisle seat lurched out from underneath her leaving her momentarily airborne before the driver corrected the vehicle's trajectory, preventing a rollover and in the same split second forcing the seat beneath the girl again before she was thrown bodily into the seat in front of her by momentum.

Pain erupted in her shoulder where she hit the seat in front of her, people were yelling, screaming, some were crying. She could hear sirens coming closer and someone was yelling for everyone to get off the bus. Crystal blinked, unable to move for a moment as her mind tried to process what happened just a moment ago. She didn't know how much time passed while she lay on the bus floor before she was suddenly brought back to reality by a police officer talking to her.

"Are you alright miss? Are you hurt?" he asked, behind him she could take in the scene of other officers and a couple paramedics tending to those who could not help themselves, how long had she been sitting there?

"Are you alright!" He repeated and she finally was able to make herself nod dumbly. What was going on with her, why couldn't she respond or move?

"We need a medic over here!" The officer finally shouted and Crystal's vision began to go out of focus. She stared at the officer as a paramedic hurriedly wove through what was left of the aisle and tried to tell them it was ok. She felt fine! But when she finally spoke it only came out as a 'gurk' before everything went black.

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Sleep is a wonderful thing. Your mind is free to explore endless possibilities that the body and your subconscious can come up with. At that moment Crystal was floating through a vast sea of relaxation and calm. The stars were above her, the sea underneath her, and all was right in the world.

There was, however, an annoying beeping and buzzing sound that would come and go in regular intervals getting louder each time. She squirmed in the darkness wising the infernal racket would simply go away and let her sleep but then a new noise joined in.

"Crystal?"

She squirmed again

"Crystal?"

Her eyes fluttered but remained shut.

"Crystal!"

Her eyes snapped open only to be blinded by something resembling the sun, forcing them shut again. The brightness didn't help the knives that she felt were being driven into her skull at all – her shoulder meanwhile felt like someone had tried to detach it with a front loader and reattached it with a jackhammer.

"Crystal." The voice repeated again, and this time she had enough sense to recognize the speaker behind it.

"Dennis? What are you doing here?...Where is here?" She asked, squinting as her eyes slowly adjusted to the light.

"You're in the hospital, Crystal. Your bus was hit by a truck." He said. "And I'm here because I work here, remember?"

She blinked a couple times before her brain finally kicked into gear, the memories and people she knew lighting back up in the archives of her mind.

"Right. You're a resident now. Sorry." She said closing her eyes again and rubbing her head. She was surprised to find that there was gauze underneath her hand where skin and hair should be. "What happened to me?"

"Well, again, you were in an accident Miss Stone." He said picking up his clipboard and listing off what happened to her. A dislocated shoulder, which had been reset, and a mild concussion.

"Now you need to stay awake for the next twelve hours because of the concussion, Crystal. We don't want you slipping into a coma in your sleep and a nurse or myself will be coming in to check on you regularly during the night."

"You work the night shift? No wonder I never see you." She said. It was no secret that at one point she had a thing fort he up and coming doctor, but as he progressed further into his career they drifted farther apart. Fortunately they had tried remained friends, though they rarely saw each other.

"Yep, I love the work though, so I can't complain." He smiled down at here as an awkward silence set in. Crystal was forced to contemplate everything that had happened between them and in her life since Dennis had come and gone from it. She was still working at the same dead end job, still single, and even more friendless than she was when the two had first tried a relationship.

"Anyways, once you've been awake for twelve hours you'll be free to go but in the meantime…" He tossed the remote control for the TV onto the bed beside her, "Get comfortable. I'll be back in a bit."

Crystal sighed and turned on the TV, not bothering to see what was on but wanting the background noise so she could think. Flopping back on the un-plushy pillow she wondered how her life had gotten to a point where someone who used to be one of her good friends now had a hard time being in the same room with her. There was no point in crying over the lost friendship since they had not been an item for almost a year now, but it still tugged at part of her heart to see him act that way.

She felt as though the rut in her life had suddenly turned into a gaping ravine and she sitting in a puddle of mud at the bottom. While the imagery made a rueful smile come to her lips she still felt that way, regardless of weather the picture in her head was correct or not. She needed a change, but wasn't sure if she had the wherewithal to make it happen. She was just involved in an accident bad enough to land a hospital stay, maybe that was some sort of a wake up call to her of all the things she wanted to do but hadn't yet.

Leaving the TV running Crystal rummaged around the magazine rack that was built into the bed but found only one within the small shelf. It was an older magazine clearly aimed at people who played live action role playing games or something, judging from the badly dressed knights with large glasses on the front cover. The tome like magazine had the name _ALIA MUNDOS_ emblazoned across the front. Whatever that meant. At least she had something to read, so there was that. Even at home she preferred to have her boxy ten year old TV on simply for background noise while she was doing something else.

It took her two hours to skim through the entire magazine, in which time she only found three different things that were interesting. There was an article on Arthurian legend and a team that was trying to prove the legend was real, an article about the state of video games for girls, and the latter section of the magazine which was devoted to various people and shops selling various "artifacts" from fantasy worlds.

Amongst the obvious fakes and trash there was a fairly convincing copy of the One Ring from the Lord of the Rings movies, and a few wands from the set of one of the Harry Potter movies. But there was one ad that seemed to stand apart from the others because of its lack of pictures and simple, flowing text.

_FOR SALE: One magical door. When used correctly this door will transport you to a magical realm suited to your needs. It is made of solid, rich mahogany and includes decorative runes along the middle portion of the frame. Magic only activates if the door is entered from within. Watch that first step. Delivery within 24 hours guaranteed._

_Call 558-555-3867 for inquiries._

Crystal blinked and reread the ad quickly, trying to decipher the strange tugging sensation in her heart was when the words went through her mind. Other than the lack of pictures and the text this ad was no different than any of the others on the page. So why did she feel so interested in this?

But she already knew the answer to that question. She was interested because it seemed like it was too good to be true, which meant it probably was. Travel to a magical realm on command? Have her needs – which were mostly emotional – filled and be able to feel good about herself? Even if the ad was lying it was something that she felt she needed to at least try, what harm could it do? Worse case scenario she would end up with a non-magic but functional door…or some firewood.

Besides she owned the townhome, she could put a new door in if she wanted to.

Closing her eyes and shaking her head to try and shake off the headache Crystal had to take a minute to get her bearings again before sitting upright, fighting the ever tilting room. Getting out of bed right now would probably end her in an embarrassing position on the floor. Stupid hospital gowns.

Jamming the nurse call button down she was pleased to find a nurse standing in her room not moment later. However Crystal couldn't just tell the nurse that she needed her purse because she wanted to order a magical door from this old magazine she found on the bed. That might end her on a different floor in a strait jacket. Instead Crystal told a very convincing lie about how it was 'that time of the month' and needed some things from her purse. Fortunately the lie worked flawlessly and soon enough a sympathetic nurse left her alone once more, closing the door behind her.

Glancing at the magazine's ad one more time to confirm the number, crystal picked up the phone that was built into the bed – since cell phones wouldn't work in here – and dialed the number.

_Bzzzzzzzt!_ The digital bell tolled in her ear, maybe this wasn't such a good idea. Maybe this whole thing was just some sort of joke or trick.

_Bzzzzzzzt!_ Speaking of tricks, maybe this was actually some kind of trap. Maybe it was all part of some elaborate setup to get her alone and take all her money.

_Bzzzzzzzt! _Maybe she should hang up now, save herself the embarrassment of all of this being recorded and put on national TV or worse, the Internet.

_Bzzzzz– _

"Hello?" The voice on the other end was a man, but obviously an old man. From the sounds of it, very old. This surprised Crystal though she didn't know why, freezing her brain just long enough that she couldn't make a coherent response come to her lips.

"Is there anyone there?" The voice repeated.

"Err, yes." Crystal stumbled over words in her head, "Hi. Sorry about that, my name is Crystal and I'm calling about an ad I found in this…magazine…about a magical door?"

It all sounded so incredibly foolish when it was said out loud that Crystal assumed the old man would simply laugh at her and hang up. Fortunatly she was in the hospital so when she died of embarrassment they might be able to revive her.

"Oh dear me!" The old man had a hint of excitement in his voice, "I do not believe it. I've ran that ad in _Alia Mundos_ for the last five years and haven't had one peep about it until you called, young lady." He chuckled, "Dear me, what a happy day indeed."

"I'm sorry, what is your name?" Crystal asked, she had already given him her name so it was a fair trade.

"Oh, young lady you may call me Mr. Waddle."

"Alright, Mr. Waddle, I'm curious, is the door still for sale?"

"Oh yes. I still have it up on hinges and everything."

"How much are you asking for it?"

"Well, originally I was asking five hundred dollars, but that was five years ago – not that the thing depreciates in value or anything it's solid mahogany after all. But I have a feeling about you, young lady, I think you just might be the one meant to have this. How does fifty dollars sound to you?"

Crystal was taken aback momentarily that the old many was willing to give her such a steep discount on the door simply because she had been the only one to inquire about it. It didn't seem fair to her, and she was never one to take advantage of anyone, much less an elderly man who may or may not have some mental issues.

"Um, that seems a little cheap, how about fifty for the door, and I throw in another fifty to help with shipping." She offered.

"Oh dear me." He chuckled, "You are defiantly the right person for this gift. Yes, young lady that sounds absolutely fair. Now don't worry about a thing Crystal – err what was your last name young lady?"

"Stone."

"Alright Crystal Stone, don't worry about a thing for delivery or payment, we have already accepted the terms of the deal so the magic will do the rest. Just remember, to go to the magical world you must enter the door from within. You have a wonderful day now." The old man's jovial laughter began to fade as if he was setting the handset down.

"Wait! But I–

_Click._

Crystal stared at the phone wondering what just happened. Perhaps it was a joke after all. Perhaps the old man was simply crazy. Perhaps he had simply escaped his room somewhere at a mental institution and gained access to a phone just in time for her to call. Perhaps she should be in that institution as well.

Placing the phone back on its cradle she laid back onto the lumpy uncomfortable pillows, her head killing her. What was she thinking? Buy a magical door…right. Fortunately the old scammer didn't have the wherewithal to get any of her bank information from her before hanging up. Oh well, his loss. Good lord her head hurt, maybe an orderly would be by soon to check on her and she could get some painkillers.

Grabbing the TV remote with an irritated swipe at the bed Crystal resigned herself to try and find something interesting to watch, knowing it was going to be a long night.

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Luna stared at the endless canopy of the night from the highest balcony of the Canterlot Palace. When no one had shown for the midnight court tonight she simply canceled the useless spectacle for the evening and gone to watch the stars. Something she had surprisingly little time for, being Princess of the night. Usually when she was looking up at her sky it would be to study the stars themselves or test positions for new constellations that she had thought up.

Tonight, however, she was doing none of that. She was simply enjoying the moonlit beauty that she had given the world, content with the fact that so few ever saw it. Those that needed the night sky would find it would always be there for them, and that was enough.

However as she enjoyed the cool night air something caught her attention. In her peripheral she could have sworn one of the stars had wiggled, but when she glanced that direction there was nothing to be seen.

Then, it wiggled again. How could this be? Stars do not wiggle, not unless she tells them to! A quick check of her own recent memories proved that point, no commands sent to the stars. So stop wiggling.

It wiggled a third time.

_This simply will not do. _Luna thought, _You will obey, and stay firmly in your place._ She mentally chastised the star, pointing her considerable magic at it and commanding it to be still. But then something incredible happened, not only did her magic bounce off of the star, but the star began to move in slow, concentric circles. On its own!

She narrowed her eyes trying to sense if perhaps this foul twinkling perpetrator was tainted by chaos or any other kind of magic. She closed her eyes, concentrating on the star as it moved across the sky of its own accord, her head slowly following it, horn aglow with magic.

It was not chaos magic but the star defiantly had its own magical signature. Of what though she could not be sure, it was strong but…old. Somehow she sensed that the magic engulfing this star was older than even Celestia and herself and just as quickly as she was able to confirm the magic was there, it faded. Opening her eyes in surprised Luna looked skyward again, almost straight up, to where the star now rested. She glanced back at the horizon where it started and measured with her eyes to its new position and frowned.

Stars do not move 176 degrees across the sky on their own, and certainly when she specifically told the star not to.

"Guards." Her two personal bat like ponies appeared by her side, having been just inside the room behind her. "Wake my sister and bring her to us – err – me. It is urgent."

The guard on the left bowed low and scampered off, leaving the other to return to his post by the door.

Luna on the other hand turned her attention back to the star that had moved itself across the sky just a minute ago. She could still sense the magic emanating from it but it was much more faint, almost dormant. If she hadn't known it was there she may have missed it completely.

She needed another sent of eyes on the star to understand what had just happened, perhaps someone with a non-princess perspective but who was still sensitive to magic.

A piece of parchment and quill came flying to her on command and she began to write to just the pony she knew would be able to help.

_Dear Twilight Sparkle…_


	2. Chapter 2

So I forgot to post this after I had updated the story on fimfiction. Sorry bout that. Here it is, updated.

Enjoy! Review's always appreciated!

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Twilight winced as the rays from the morning sun crept through a slit in the curtain and fell conveniently on her face. She tried to delay getting up by rolling over but the heat on her mane was enough to drag her the rest of the way into consciousness. The lavender mare blinked groggily and rubbed the sleep from her eyes with her foreleg. The party at Pinkie Pie's last night had been a long one, celebrating Spike's birthday was as her friend put it a-super-duber-awesome-no-one-can-miss-this-party-it-is-going-to-be-something something Twilight had stopped listening after about the twentieth syllable and agreed to be there.

Not that she would have said no, but Pinkie talks too much when she gets excited.

Smacking her lips Twilight sat up and looked around her room, getting her bearings for the day and finding with satisfaction that everything was exactly as she had left it the night before. Or morning before. Whatever time it was she got home last night or this morning. _There_ was the way to cover all her bases.

With a self-satisfied smile Twilight hopped out of bed and promptly tripped over her number one assistant's basket with a squeak, falling gracelessly to the floor while he slumbered away.

"Ugh, Spike!" She complained, only to notice her assistant was still asleep. How dare he move his basket from its properly ordered place in her room – this action would not go unpunished. Pushing to her hooves and shaking her mane Twilight's horn glowed with the intention of teleporting the sleeping dragon into the comfortable branches at the highest point of her tree house. But something stopped her. Next to his basket was a scrolled that he had belched out at some point in the early morning, a noise that she had clearly slept though because of the late party.

Mentally, she called it even.

Snatching the note from the floor with her magic, Twilight examined the seal on the note since it was different than what she would normally get. The wax that was used was a dark blue and on the seal itself was a crescent shape that had a stylized 'L' over it. This letter was from Princess Luna, but why would Luna be sending her a letter? Twilight liked to think that the Princess of the night was her friend but if she were honest with herself she had not heard from the dark alicorn since the Nightmare Night incident. _Well, only one way to find out what is going on._ She thought, unrolling the letter at eye level.

_Dear Twilight Sparkle, _

_I write to thee in the hope that thy own expertise may help with a problem that has arisen only hours ago. Early this very morning I was watching the night sky, studying that which I had created, when a particular star began to move itself across the night sky._

"What?" Twilight said aloud, and continued to read.

_After consulting star charts in the Canterlot archives we discovered in the present age the star is named Ostium Mundi 5, which I believe is much better than the old name of X-243-B. It simply does not roll off the tongue as well._

_What I ask is that ye focus your considerable knowledge of magic on the star in the coming night. Because it has moved your star charts will not lend any aid other than a place to find its new position from. By my own estimates it appears the star has moved 176 degrees South, 8 minutes west from its previous position in the sky. We ask that ye make the studying of this star and make it your priority._

_Please report any magical findings regarding the star directly to us. _

_Regards, _

_Princess Luna._

First thoughts were that Luna had only said 'we' a few times in the letter which made twilight happy for the dark princess.

However, the butterflies in her stomach were quickly overriding those feelings. Not only was the younger Princess asking a great deal of her almost no information other than what to look at, but she wanted Twilight to get on it tonight. The mare needed some organization to quall the rising uncertainty in her mind, she had been asked to do all of this before she had even had breakfast! Didn't Luna know that the key to having a successful day of studying was to have breakfast?! Ugh! Twilight needed something to calm her nerves. She needed a checklist, and fast.

"Spike, wake up!" Twilight half yelled but the sleeping dragon simply rolled over.

Irritated, Twilight yelled at the dragon to awaken and this time he groggily sat up – halfway coherent anyways – and asked what was the matter only to have a letter magically shoved in his face to read.

"_That_ is what is the matter, Spike. I haven't even had breakfast and I have a personal request from Luna herself to investigate a star that happened to move itself all the way across the sky on its own because…magic…or something. I don't know she wasn't very clear which means I'll have to research every possible thing that may have caused that and who knows how long _that_ will take and I only have until tonight to prepare for this so–"

A clawed hand was stuck in her mouth, stopping the tirade. Without a word Spike removed his hand from Twilight's mouth, wiped it on her coat, pulled a quill and parchment out from under the bed, and waited her to start dictating while still half asleep.

"I'm sorry Spike, I didn't expect to be woken up with work from princess Luna first thing in the morning or I wouldn't have stayed at the party so late." She looked down, her ears flattened against her head.

The dragon child grunted in acceptance of her apology and still sat there waiting for her to dictate the checklist that would surely calm her down, and maybe then he could go back to sleep. His indifferent gaze to the mare standing above him said as much and with an apologetic giggle Twilight got started.

"Alright, Luna's Star Research request is a good title, item one…"

Crystal was released from the hospital late the following morning after her concussion had been deemed light enough that she could go home and get some rest, on the condition that a follow-up appointment was scheduled. The rest of the night she only saw the orderlies and nurses that came and went, not once did Dennis see her again.

While part of her expected that, there was part of her that wished he had come back in so they could talk about what happened with their relationship. She still had unanswered questions about how exactly they fell apart but Dennis not coming back to see her answered a lot of them. What mattered was that he was simply not interested in her and that was all there was to it.

She opted to walk home since the hospital was only a couple miles from where here townhome community was built in spite of the fact that a city bus went right by her neighborhood. Crystal wasn't quite ready to face those fears just yet and desperately needed some fresh air after being cooped up in a hospital for fourteen hours.

Besides the autumn air was crisp against her lungs and the light of the sun on her face helped her feel refreshed in spite of the lack of sleep. Sometime after the original call had been placed to the old man who called himself Mr. Waddle, Crystal called the man back intent on getting more information about this magical door. However when she called back she was only met with a message that the number had been disconnected. Oh, no he didn't. You can't just dangle a pair of ruby red slippers to another world in front of Crystal Stone and expect her to back off if you unplugged the phone. Crazy or no crazy she was getting a door out of this.

Now that she had been teased with buying the door she wanted the darn thing whether the man was crazy or not and to prove the point, she had snuck the magazine out of the hospital in her purse.

Take that, Dennis.

Though she wasn't sure where to start in getting ahold of Mr. Waddle there was still a smile on her face when she finally arrived at her modest, two story brick townhome. The front of which was guarded by a waist high wrought iron fence and gate. Everything seemed exactly as she had left it the day before when she had left for work, but who could have predicted she would be involved in a truck on bus accident. Which reminded her, take some Tylenol before the headache came back.

Crossing the small front yard Crystal unlocked the door after rummaging around her purse for a moment, and stepped inside. Once again everything was exactly where she had left it. As she stood in the entryway she thought about what might have happened if she didn't escape that accident with just a shoulder injury and a concussion. What if she had been more seriously injured? What if she had died? Would anyone have even noticed?

Her breathing gradually sped up as all of the horrible possibilities came to her mind. She didn't even have a will so her stuff would have just…gone away. And what if she had wanted something to go to the nice old couple that lived next door to her? Would all of that be ignored?!

No. Crystal refused to let herself fall into a fit of anxiety like that. She had better control of her emotions than that and after taking a few deep, even breaths, and decided it was time for a nap. She had been awake a day and then some now and work wasn't expecting her back until Monday the next week, having already called someone in to cover Crystal's shifts. She had savings to tie her over for lost income and this way she would have her birthday off. Yay! There was one good thing to come from the accident so far.

After taking a Tylenol and making herself some toast, Crystal kicked off her shoes, grabbed her purse, snack, and proceeded upstairs to the master suite while glancing at the living room from the stairs. Maybe after some sleep she would rearrange the furniture in that room to help feed this feeling of change in her heart.

But as she reached the third step to the top Crystal noticed something different about the hallway in her peripheral vision, as if a single part of it was much darker than she had remembered. By the time she looked forward again into the hall several things occurred to the young woman at once: Firstly the door to her bedroom at the end of the hall had been replaced. Secondly, someone had broken into her house in order to replace the door. Thirdly, The door had runes center of the frame that kept it in place, and it looked very old. No, she realized this wasn't just any door this was _the_ door…the one from the magazine!

Her heart beat in her ears as she shakily set her bag and toast down on the step and grabbed the can of aerosolized mace from an easily accessible pocket of her purse. She didn't know much about self-defense, but she knew enough to take care of herself. Besides the walls were thin enough that if she screamed the neighbors would hear.

Edging forward Crystal made it to the top of the stairs and promptly threw open the closet near the top. No one in there. She closed the door quietly and stepped slowly to the spare bedroom that acted as her office but was met with the same result. Empty of anyone but her. That meant that if whoever broke into her home was still there, they were in the master bedroom. Her bedroom.

Her hands felt clammy and her breath came in shaky waves as she reached for the handle of the ornate, hardwood door and quickly threw it open jumping into her room and yelling for whoever was in there to freeze!

Except there was no one there. A cursory check of the master bath revealed the same thing. Whomever had done this was long gone, hopefully for good. Setting the mace on her bed Crystal looked around her room to see if anything was missing or out of place, taking time with the knick knacks that she had inherited from her father before he died, and scanning the end tables on either side of her bed. There, on the end table closest to the door there was a flick of gold and beige that she couldn't remember being there before the accident.

Miffed that her home had been violated, Crystal stomped over to the end table snatched both objects to examine. The glint of gold had been from a brass key – an old style one with the single tooth on the end and a shaft that curled around into the head of a horse with what looked like a sun upon the neck.

The beige had been from a note that was left under the key that simply read:

_Enjoy the magical world as much as I did. Do not worry about payment as it has been magically deducted from your account._

Crystal didn't need to log into her bank account to know that was probably true but what was she going to do about it? Call the police and tell them someone broke into her home to install a door and hacked a hundred bucks from her account? Right, that would land her in a different kind of hospital.

She glanced at the key in her hand and then up at the door – oh what the hay she had gotten this far so might as well see if the magic was actually real or not.

_The magic only activates if entered from within. _She thought. Obviously if there was magic to this heavy looking door then it didn't work when she had burst into the room like a mace-ninja.

"Only if entered from within." She said aloud, as her mind worked through the riddle.

On instinct Crystal crossed the space to the entry and closed the orate door with a _ker-thunk_ that was much heavier than she was used to. The runes on this side of the frame appeared to mirror those on the other, opening and closing the door again to check confirmed that. She scanned the interior of the wood again looking for anything that might give her a clue to how the magic supposedly worked when she saw it. Right there in the center of the door was a depression, in which was a keyhole.

"No way." She laughed, as it couldn't be that simple but sure enough, the key in her hand slid smoothly into the hole all the way up to the neck of the horse head. Once inserted completely there was a loud _thunk_, and the runes around the frame lit up with white hot light.

Crystal squeaked in surprise and jumped back, her clenched fist pulling the key from its socket and the light from the runes died down as if a dimmer switch was moved to off. That wasn't possible. That couldn't be possible because magic didn't exist, did it? Blinking a few times to make sure what she saw was real she then became curious. If magic did exist than surely turning the key all the way around would do…well…something more than what happened when she simply inserted it.

Sliding they key home, it was again followed by the sound of something softly hitting the other side of the door and once again the runes along the frame lit up like Christmas. Driven on by her curiosity Crystal turned the key and was able to feel and hear what sounded like massive tumblers moving into position until it was finally spun in a full circle. There was a loud shutter in the door's frame and it popped open away from her just a little, filling her senses with a cool but sweet smelling breeze.

Holy smokes, this was real. All of it. The magic, the door, the man she has spoken with on the phone, and all she could do was stand there and stare blankly at the partially open door with what looked like glowing snowflakes blowing between the space every now and again. With shaking fingers Crystal pushed the door the rest of the way open, marveling at how it was opening away form her when her normal bedroom door was opposite. But it was the space beyond the doorframe that made her gasp.

Beyond the door where here hallway once resided was an endless mist of stars, appeared as if the mist itself was simply sitting there in the hall but blocking the view of anything beyond. The mist was a breathtaking display of navy blues and blacks mixing in perfect harmony dotted with every imaginable type of star.

The light breeze coming through the open door was cooler than the weather in Minneapolis had been and smelled like springtime flowers in bloom. She couldn't lie it was defiantly more inviting than and that coupled with the possibility of exploring a magical world was enough to cause her to take a step forward onto the frame itself. Only one more step and she could leave this silly life behind, at least for a while and with work not expecting her back for almost a week, why not?

Confident nothing bad would happen to her Crystal leaned forward and took a large step into the magical world that awaited her.

_Watch that first step._

It's funny how simple instructions can be disregarded so easily. Four simple words could have saved all of this from happening. She watched as her foot, far overextended from her point of balance, went right through the floor she thought was there. As it turned out the floor and walls she thought were she had seen were merely a reflection of what was in her room, nothing more. Instinctively her body twisted to try and regain balance but when the edge of the doorframe rushed past her head and away from her, she knew it was too late.

Navy blue and black clouds filled with tiny glowing stars rushed past her as she fell. Were she not fascinated what was happened she would have screamed but utter curiosity at what appeared to be little clouds of space flying past her was overriding fear at the moment. But all of that changed as the space-like clouds began to part revealing an entirely new layer of clouds beneath her. Clouds that appeared to be made out glowing, white hot fire.

Crystal screamed.

Fear had quickly taken hold as she fell helplessly towards the flames. What a way to end it all, find out that magic is real just in time to be duped into your own death and it was the last thing she could think of to curl into a ball just before impact, hoping that would somehow make her death hurt less.

Passing through the layer of flames Crystal watched in horror as the fire wrapped itself around her body, forcibly straightening her limbs out to their full extents. Then the pain started as her body began to change, fist with her fingers, burning away into her palm as her arms seemed to change shape into a shorter, rounder form. Her legs were wrapped in the fire and bent into a new angle with a sickening crack, as her feet burned away just like her hands. Her back felt like the fire was burning deep into her shoulder blades for some reason and as she flipped in the air she swore she saw something cyan mixed with the flames before everything went blissfully black.

"**CUTIE MARK CRUSADER ASTRONIMERS YAY!"**

Twilight couldn't help rolling her eyes a little, but allowed the fillies their excitement. The day of study had gone well and she felt ready for to tackle this moving star, maybe even put it back where it was supposed to be. But in an unfortunate bit of luck the CMC group had caught wind that Twilight was going to be up late watching the stars and had decided to try their hand at finding their astronomer cutie marks.

This bad luck was cancelled out by the fact that Rarity would be with them to help chaperone the fillies, having generously offered to do so after Twilight had explained her situation.

Now, it was nearing eleven at night, the fillies had long since tired of stargazing through their telescopes and were waiting for Twilight to be done so they could use her much nicer, much more powerful telescope.

Rarity, ever prepared, had brought a second dinner that was currently keeping the young ones busy while Twilight finished her work.

"Making any progress, Twilight?" She called, breaking the stream of thoughts running through the purple unicorn's head.

"Not really." Twilight admitted, "According to my star charts this _is _the star that Luna was talking about and it _did_ move the other night. There's defiantly a magical field around it but its hard to tell what. I mean it could be anything from a basic telekinetic field to a theoretical multiverse trans-dimensional–"

She stopped, noting that all four ponies were staring at her with blank expressions.

"It's a star, and it's magic." She finished and with her horn aglow, went back to studying the star, trying to sense what kind of magic was obviously wrapped around it when some thing amazing happened.

All at once the magic around the star came to life, the invisible waves of it cascading through her telescope and into her horn where she tried to make sense of what was happening. But as soon as the field had made itself known to the universe it was gone again.

"What the what?!" Twilight growled in frustration.

"Did something happen?" Sweetie asked.

"Is it gone?" Apple Bloom added.

"Did it blow up?!" Scootaloo cheered.

"Is it my hair?!" Rarity fretted, causing the other four ponies to stare at her with a mixture of amusement and something else.

"No. To all of that." Twilight said. "The magic around the star just lit up for a moment but then…it was gone. Like a switch just turned it off!"

"Just like that?" Rarity doubted.

"I know it doesn't make sense. Magic doesn't just disappear it leaves some trace of what it was after the fact but this." She concentrated on the telescope again, her horn glowing, "It's just gone again. Ugh! This makes no sense! Magic does not work that way!" She complained, repeating herself.

"Maybe it's playing magical hide and seek with'ya?" Apple Bloom offered but before Twilight could correct the young pony she felt familiar waves of magic run up her horn, which had never stopped tracking the star.

Pressing an eye to the telescope Twilight watched as just to the left of the star, barely in visible range of the view in the lens a small blue shockwave shot across the sky for a moment, a shooting star emanating from its center.

"Look! A shooting star!" Scootaloo exclaimed.

Sitting up from the telescope Twilight quickly caught the sight with her own eyes, the shooting star or whatever it was had obviously entered the atmosphere and was falling very close to where they were. Following the trajectory with her eyes in fact she was able to track that it would land right on…

"Oh no! We have to get to Ponyville, that shooting star is going to land right on the town!" Before panic would normally set in Twilights brain shifted gears into disaster mode, and punched the accelerator down. "Rarity, you and I will try and figure out where exactly that is going to land and get there so we can try to stop it – Crusaders come with us we may need you to wake the other elements."

With her friends behind her Twilight took off towards the town, her eyes on the shooting star as it fell ever faster towards the unsuspecting town. They were a ways out, having chosen a hill away from the lights to look at the stars so all she could do was keep running and hope they get there in time.

Wait a second.

Twilight slid on her hooves to a stop so suddenly that Rarity and the crusaders plowed into her knocking all of the ponies to the ground.

"Oww…why, darling, did you stop like that?! We don't have much time!" Rarity complained but a moment later, POOF!

Twilight teleported everyone to the town square.

While the crusaders tried to regain their bearings Rarity and Twilight watched the shooting star descend, it would be any second now that it would impact the town.

"Rarity! Try and use as much telekinesis as you can to slow it down." Twilight instructed.

"I-I don't know, Twilight I don't think I can help that much…." The white unicorn hesitated but the falling star was on top of them now. There was no more time to waste.

"Just to the best you can, NOW!" Twilights horn lit up with multiple layers of magic with Rarity adding what help she could to slow shooting star down, and it was working… but not enough. The unicorns try as they might could to nothing but watch in horror as the now smaller shooting star fell strait into the chimney of a home not far away, and blew out all of the windows.

Both ponies ran after the destruction, ignoring the calls from other townsponies that had been woken by the small explosion. Doing their best to avoid the glass shards scattered everywhere Twilight, Rarity, and the crusaders bringing up the rear made it to the home where Twilight raised a hoof to knock on the door.

"Seriously?" Rarity questioned, "Darling, their house just exploded and you're worried about knocking on the door…think about that for a moment."

"Eh-heh, right." Twilight blushed a pushed the door open.

The inside of the home had furniture and cushions scattered everywhere but there were a few things that immediately caught the mare's attention. In the middle of the living room was a Pegasus mare, sprawled on the floor and appearing quite hurt by the shooting star that exploded from her chimney. From what she could see it looked like she was sitting in front of the hearth when it happened, but that could be determined later. The hurt pony was a priority.

She heard Rarity tell the crusaders to get a doctor and quickly, leaving Twilight to assess the victim before more help could arrive. Stepping forward the bookish unicorn was able to confirm that the mare was breathing steadily and deeply and singed on her coat, but fortunately that was the extent of it. Sensing through the cyan mane she confirmed that there was a head injury, likely a concussion, but a mild one. She would live.

"She's so young." Rarity observed.

"No more than me I think, she's just small." Twilight concluded the exam. "She's unconscious and from what I could sense, probably has a light concussion."

"She will live then?" Another voice asked.

"Yes." Twilight said with confidence, turning to face who asked and expecting one of the medical ponies but instead, standing next to Rarity, was a pony who stood taller than most. Her navy blue coat was offset by a mane that flowed like the wind and shone like the stars in the sky above, and a cutie mark of a crescent moon. Standing next to Rarity – who appeared to be equally shocked – was princess Luna.


End file.
